Stop settling: 3 tips to find a warehousing staffing solution that works

At the recent Warehousing Education and Research Council Digital Experience (WERC DX) 2021, several panels focused on how distribution operations are responding to the current labor climate. One session included two Instawork customers, Sara Custer (Head of Operations at Farmstead Groceries) and Mike Wargocki (VP of Manufacturing at Sun Basket). Below are the four main takeaways from these sessions, including insights on revenue streams. For those interested in the workforce landscape, check out our article on Wanted: 100k New Pros This Holiday Season.

Questions to help you evaluate staffing agencies

As you begin your search for a new staffing agency, consider the following three criteria and how the agency meets each one.

How does the agency find new workers?

Precautions resulting from the pandemic have disrupted the ways agencies typically find and hire new workers. In-person processes have moved online, including recruitment, so theirs should too.

You might ask:

• "What's your online presence?" How much effort are they making online? Do they have a mobile app or an application portal? This can indicate efforts to be competitive in the market and attract quality people.
• "What channels do you use to find workers? How do workers find you for opportunities?" Are they tapping professional outlets or relying on lower-caliber sites and boards to contact candidates? Word of mouth and reputation can also indicate they're doing things right.
• "How quickly do you respond to applicants?" How proactive are they about building up their applicant pool?

This should give you a sense of how they're handling outreach. It can also say a lot about who wants to work for them—and who doesn't.

Instawork's app is highly ranked in the App Store, attracting over 10K new people to sign up each week.

What's the vetting process?

Local staffing firms often require in-person paperwork and interviews, which has made the pandemic a challenging time to interview and vet workers. With in-person meetings to test skills and gauge reliability off the table, what is the agency doing to ensure warehouse workers are a good fit?

You might ask:

• "What information do you review? How do you ensure it's true and accurate?" How are they doing the legwork, and what intel do they gather on a candidate? The more they're doing upfront to ensure a worker is a good fit, the better.
• "How do you know a worker is good?" Have they created a process to assess someone's track record and quality? Is there a way you can review ratings or get an idea of someone's hard and soft skills? Instawork profiles put a worker's results front and center. View a real profile here to see how.
• "What type of feedback are you collecting from other clients? How recent is that information?" Does the agency collect and share feedback from a worker's prior gigs? Without a dedicated worker profile, you're taking their word for it—not the word of someone in your shoes.

Instawork takes feedback very seriously—and so do the workers who use us. Detailed feedback is collected in-app after every shift. With their reputation on the line, workers are motivated to do great work every time.

How do they handle retention and worker relations?

Staffing firms have hit an all-time low in how temporary workers rate working with them, so it's critical to learn how an agency handles retention. If a staffing agency can't deliver good service to workers, they'll find a better opportunity elsewhere. And if they can't keep good people on the roster, that ultimately becomes your problem.

You might ask:

• "What's your retention rate? How often do warehouse workers return for the 2nd shift?"
• "What are your customer support levels?"
• "How do you recognize and reward workers that do well?"

If a company is not measuring retention rates and engaging workers to improve them, it's more likely workers will find an agency that does. You can look into how workers feel about an agency. Ratings and reviews are a good place to start.

Instawork's App Store ratings are on average 4.8/5.0, and that's from over 10,000 ratings (iOS, Google Play).

Ready for a better warehouse staffing solution?

There's a better way, and it's right at your fingertips. For Boley, Instawork has been the accountable partner its warehouse needs. "Instawork was able to find us people fast, at a time when we were experiencing a big internal warehouse shift. They sent us high-quality people with great attitudes that really helped shift our warehouse atmosphere."

Instawork delivers the quality, convenience, and reliability warehouses need right now. Our transparent, high-tech staffing app does more than toss talent your way and leaves the rest to you. We're not your average staffing agency—we work with you to find the best people and build a staffing program that's tailored to you.

Instawork is a leading flexible staffing solution located in over 20 metro cities, including California (SF Bay Area, LA, San Diego), Texas (Austin, Dallas, Texas), Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Miami, NJ/NYC Metro, Phoenix, and more.

Need a better way to hire warehouse workers and grow your business? Visit instawork.com to learn more. Or, book a demo below.

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